Katarina Witt

Figure Skater

Born: 3 December 1965

Birthplace: Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz), Germany

Best known as: Charismatic figure skating champ

Katarina Witt was the dominant female figure skater of the 1980s, winning gold medals for East Germany in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, Witt's sex appeal and talent made her a natural for capitalist success. In the 1990s she made the full transition from skating star to international heartthrob, acting in movies like Ronin (1998, with Robert DeNiro) and posing nude for Playboy magazine.

Extra credit: Witt won a 1990 Emmy for her starring role in the HBO special Carmen on Ice.